A Little Bit of History Repeating
by Wren Maxwell
Summary: Twenty five years after Tron: Legacy Sam and Quorra go missing.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Ok, so lord knows I haven't written a thing that wasn't school related in forever, but, well, school is over and I guess my fingers got bored. I'd like to say I was bit by a rabid plot bunny after seeing the movie, but that would imply plot. This was more of an evil, random idea opossum. So, if you're feeling kind leave me some feedback. Good, bad or indifferent, just like to hear your thoughts! Flames are good for toasting marshmellows!

Also, no, I don't really have a beta, so I apologize for my terrible grammar ahead of time.

Now! For the mandatory disclaimer. I don't own Tron, Tron: Legacy or any of the other things that the movie company may own. I wish I owned Garrett Hedlund, but alas. My sister did get me a Sam Flynn action figure for Christmas, but that is besides the point. Don't sue me, I have nothing you want. Jules and Jamie are totally mine though, so hands off. ^_^

(Some background info.) After Sam's return from the grid he took control of ENCOM to try and make it what his father always dreamed it should be. He had Quorra at his side and their intense relationship soon heated into a romance. A year after Sam and Quorra returned they were married and a year after that they welcomed a daughter.

During the time that Sam and Quorra were trying to turn ENCOM into the kind of company Kevin would have been proud of they were also returning to the grid from time to time to see what could be salvaged of that world... to see if Kevin could have possibly survived... to see if there were anymore ISOs in existence, since they were sure Quorra couldn't possibly be that last.

For the most part they tried to keep their presence unknown, for though Clu was gone, his followers and many of their ways of life had survived, albeit in a degraded and more violent 3rd world sort of way. Time passed more quickly on the grid if they left it running while they were on the outside world. Normally they shut it down when they weren't online, but after starting up a resistance movement they would occasionally let the system function to see what the programs could do on their own if given their independence.

Then one day... Sam and Quorra disappeared.

The future. Maybe 25 years after Tron: Legacy.

It was late and the large house set back from the main roads was dark but for one room. The only light was coming from the study around back and it was faint, just the dull blue glow of a computer screen. Jules sat at the large oak desk in her father's study, typing away on a new program she was designing for ENCOM. Her blue eyes flew over the screen, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration or frustration alternately when the lines of code didn't turn out the way she wanted. Eventually she stopped to rub her eyes and realized that it had gotten dark since she decided to sit down so long ago. Her body was stiff from hunching over the keyboard for so long so she got up to stretch and turn on some lights. As she clicked on the desk lamp she got a look at the antique clock her father kept on his desk and was shocked to realize that it was after midnight. Her face scrunched in confusion.

Her parents should have been home hours ago. For dinner, in fact, her stomach told her as it rumbled. She was home for the summer and her parents were planning to have a family dinner to celebrate having the whole family under one roof again. It was weird that she hadn't seen or heard from them all night. If something came up at work or whatever they always called to tell her they were gonna be late or to eat without them. Wondering if she had just been too involved in her programming to notice her phone she went to grab her jacket off the chair where she had thrown it earlier and dig her phone out of the pocket. Tossing the jacket back she checked her missed calls and saw that her parents weren't among them. She frowned and dialed her father's number as she left the study to do a quick tour of the house. She got a message that the number she had dialed wasn't in service. Her dad never went anywhere without his phone on. Confused by the message and the lack of her parents car in the garage, she dialed her mother next and got the same message. Now she was a little more concerned.

She didn't want to cause a panic so she didn't bother calling the company yet. She went back to the study and brought up the vidscreen hidden behind the wooden wall paneling of the office. She punched in Alan's number and waited for someone to answer. She knew it was late but Alan had never failed her yet. But it wasn't Alan that answered the phone.

"Surprise!" came the voice of her lifelong best friend over the vidscreen before his face popped into view.

"Hey!" Jules replied, delight warring with concern on her face. She hadn't seen him in over a year after all, and not in person in almost three.

James looked at her face for about half a second, "What's wrong?"

It was enough to make Jules' concern win out. "My parents never came home tonight. I wanted to check with Alan before I called the company and riled everyone up."

"Hold on, I'll go get him."

Jules paced and cracked her knuckles nervously during the few minutes it took for Jamie to reappear with Alan in tow. One look at Alan's aging face and she knew something was wrong.

"What is it?" she demanded, a little fear and anxiety seeping into her voice.

Alan swallowed and studied her hard for a moment. "Earlier today your parents said they couldn't wait to have dinner with you, that they had something big to tell you... but they had one stop to make before they saw you. They left the office early..." he trailed off.

Jules heart thudded heavily in her chest. "Where. Alan, where did they say they were going?"

James was looking back and forth between his grandfather and his best friend on the screen. There was a question on his face, but he didn't dare interrupt.

"The arcade." It came out hoarse, barely more than a whisper. "They said they had to stop at the arcade," Alan repeated, stronger this time. James watched as the color drained from Jules' face.

"Wait, are your guys talking about the Forbidden Arcade?" The words had capitals when he spoke them. "The one your dad told us about when we were kids? I thought those were just stories to scare us."

Jules was shaking her head, thinking about many things now. "I don't think so... not entirely anyways," she said slowly. "They still don't want me going there and my dad keeps the only set of keys." As she was thinking she brought up the computer interlink on the vidscreen so she could continue talking to them while she let her fingers do some walking.

"What are you going to do?" Alan asked as soon as her face disappeared.

"Whatever I have to." she replied, determination strong in her voice as she hacked into the GPS tracking for her parents car. She needed to confirm were they were last before she did anything.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" came Lora's voice over the com. "I couldn't help but overhear." Alan's wife admitted softly.

"Hey Lora," Jules called, "I'm tracking their location now, but you know until 48 hours is up the police won't do jack. We can't do anything but look for them ourselves." The GPS map finally pulled up. Her parents car was parked a block from her grandfather's arcade, and based on the timestamp it had been there for hours. "Their car is at the arcade. I'm going to go look for them." she stated, starting to shut down her system.

"I'm coming with you." James announced.

"Wait just a minute!" Lora's indignant voice came on, "It's the middle of the night and that is not a good part of town. Why can't we have the police drive by and just have a look around?"

"I don't have time to wait for you to get here." Jules responded to Kevin, speaking over Lora as she grabbed her jacket from where she had tossed it earlier. She checked her pocket for her keys as she pulled the black leather on. "I'll meet you on the road, exit 17 downtown." she called as she started to run from the room. The last thing she heard was Lora's voice fading as Alan pulled her away from the screen to try and reason with her before the connection closed.

Jules' antique Ducati roared through the streets, attracting a lot more attention that she would have liked on a normal day among the quiet electric cars that now ruled the streets. Tonight she wasn't worried about speeding tickets or pissy drivers, not that they were normally high on her list anyways. Being the wealthy brat of famous computer tycoons had its perks, but tonight she was speeding toward something, not just for the hell of it.

Another motorcycle pulled up next to hers as she crossed the bridge to exit 17. It was bigger, louder and driven by one of the people she trusted most in the world to have her back. But as they raced to her grandfather's arcade she couldn't help but feel that they were racing towards something that would change their lives forever.

Jules glanced over briefly to see James giving her the old hand signals for 'Bet I can beat you there.' She couldn't help but roll her eyes. Some things never changed. She kicked the throttle up a notch and shot past James, her speed all the response he needed to know 'Game On.' When they were younger they used to race to relieve stress. The freedom of going fast and the grace of motion as they road in synchrony was enough to clear her head of whatever was bothering her and she was grateful to him now for remembering that.

By the time they reached the underground parking garage where her parents car waited she was in a more centered state of mind, any panic shoved aside so reason could step in. She almost hoped their car had been jacked and their phones smashed and that they were walking home right now. It was unlikely, but better than the alternative that her mind had come up with... that they had simply disappeared. Just like her grandfather.

"I won," she called out of habit after she yanked her helmet off, her messy brown hair, so like her father's in color, falling all around her face.

"Yea yea," James muttered, removing his own helmet and patting his less maneuverable machine. "We'll beat her someday," he told it, "when she stops cheating," he called, somewhat louder.

She gave him a droll look as she swung her jean-clad leg over her bike and went to inspect her parents car. Everything looked fine, the doors were locked and the alarm was still set. She sighed heavily before turning back to James, only to find him watching her.

Jamie hadn't really seen Jules in person in almost 3 years, and their infrequent vidscreen chats hadn't done her justice. Jules had grown up. Her hair was shorter and more sophisticated than he remembered and she had lost her baby fat to finally become a slim, sleek young woman in tight jeans and biker boots with the kind of lips a man would dream about.

Jules gave him a funny look, the lips he had been thinking indecent thoughts about twisting. "You ok?" she asked, cocking her head. He muttered an affirmative, thinking to himself that perhaps it had been too long since he last got laid.

"Well, everything here seems fine. We should probably go check the arcade," she said with something akin to dread in her voice. Kevin gave a curt nod as they secured their bikes and headed over to the old building where her grandfather had once spent so much of his time.

When they got there Jules stood in the street for a few minutes just staring at the place. For as long as she could remember she had been told stories of this place. And from the time she was old enough to get really curious she could remember being told it was off limits to her. No exceptions. James waited patiently for her, a tall, silent, but supportive presence. When she was ready, they broke in.

"Hard to believe after all the warnings that this is all there is. A mausoleum dedicated to outdated gaming tech and bad 80's graphics." James said conversationally as he looked around and Jules coughed on some of the overly abundant dust that hung in the air.

"It doesn't look like anyone ever comes here," Jules said as she wandered further in, flashlight raised. "But the power is turned on, and there are handprints in the dust," she called as she found the fuse box. "See if you can find the light switches!" she yelled, about to head up to the second floor.

"Hold up! Com'ere!" Jamie yelled back.

"What is it?" she replied, peering around the old machines to figure out where he had wandered. He was standing in front of an old machine by the back wall.

"This is it, right?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at her, "The game your parents used to tell us about?"

She walked closer and realized he was correct. "Tron," It came out a whisper. She analyzed the heavily dated piece of equipment while her memory flashed through images of storytime with her parents when she was growing up. The machine was the only one in the place with no dust on it.

"Think your parents came here for a bit of nostalgia?" Jaime asked her quietly, his head cocked inquiringly as he studied the look of consternation on her face.

Jules' mind was racing. Something just wasn't adding up as she looked at the demo lightcycles crossing the screen. The game in front of her simply wasn't complex enough to be the one her parents used to describe to her in such vivid detail. It was too old, too simplistic. The game world her parents told her about was as real to her growing up as the one she lived in now. "...this isn't it. It can't be. Its not... right." she said more to herself than him.

James watched as her eyes flickered frantically over the screen before turning back to it himself. It didn't seem quite right to him either, but he couldn't put his finger on why. The name was right and it was obviously a game of light cycles and disc games. "What's wrong with it?"

Jules turned to look at him thoughtfully. "Its too simple, or something. I can't explain it..." she looked back at the machine. Memories of lightcycles racing for the win flashed through her mind, the determined and frightened faces of the drivers as vivid as Jaime's face right in front of her. She blinked and shook her head suddenly as if to shake off the startling images.

Jaime had never seen his friend look so out of control. Even though she was younger than him she had her parents devil-may-care attitude about life and never let anything ruffle her feathers. Their parents called them Havoc and Mayhem when they were growing up. He didn't know how to deal with the lost young woman in front of him. After a moment he reached out and gently squeezed her shoulder. "Why don't we play a round. This is just the preview screen, maybe the real deal is better?"

A half smile appeared on her face. "Maybe..." she said, bending to grab something out of her boot. " 'Never travel without at least one quarter.' " she quoted as she straightened.

Jaime smiled at the obsolete currency in her hand. "I forgot your dad used to say that."

"Good thing I remembered," she said with a smirk, inserting the coin in the slot. It slid through and rang out as it hit the ground.

"You sure it was a quarter?" he teased, grin on his face.

"Yes." she said, giving him a punch for good measure before bending to retrieve her coin. Jules head tilted when she noticed the scrapes in the floor. "What the..." She looked up at the machine first before leaning to look next to it on the right, then shoving against Jaime's legs as she came out of her crouch and went around the left side to look behind it. "I think this thing moves!" she said with surprise and some

incredulity in her voice.

"Really?" Jaime leaned to look over her head, "By George, I think you're right!"

Jules rolled her eyes, "Alright Watson, help me move this thing."

The game moved with remarkable ease, as if it was on a regularly maintained hinge. Behind it was a faintly lit passageway. The pair looked at each other. "Ladies first?" James offered. He got a dirty look in response as Jules went though the doorway.

When they came to the doors at the end of the passageway Jules didn't hesitate to throw them open. "Dad! Mom!" she called as she stood in the doorway to the room. It wasn't big and she already knew they wouldn't be there, but 'hope springs eternal' as they say. Her shoulders sagged slightly as she released the door handles to step further into the room.

The inner computer nerd in James took him straight to the console located along the back wall while Jules slowly looked around. "Maybe I can find out what they were doing here," he said, taking a seat. Jules let out some sort of affirmative as she looked at the pictures tacked to the wall. The oldest were of her dad and grandfather when her dad was still very young, the most recent a picture of her and her mother on their latest trip to some exotic local, Egypt she thought. "They must come her a lot..." she mumbled to herself, turning for the first time to the computer console that dominated the room. Her eyes widened, "My father's chip!" she took the few strides to the terminal quickly.

"Huh?" Jaime leaned over to see what she was looking at.

She held the cord up where he could see it. "The computer chip my dad always wears around his neck. I've never seen him without it."

"Oh. Well, I guess now we know what it's for."

"Do we?" she came around the terminal to lean over his shoulder. "What did you find?"

"Not really sure. There is a program running, but I'm locked out."

"What the last command code entered? Can you bring it up?"

He was already typing, "Yea, something here... hold on, I'll reenter it, see what happens."

Jules didn't argue. She would soon come to ask herself why she didn't. There was a click and a humming sound behind her. "So... don't look know, but there is a laser pointed right at us," she said as she peeked over her shoulder. The noise from the laser got louder, then, in the blink of the eye it was quiet and everything looked just _slightly_ different.

"What just happened?"


	2. Chapter 2

AN: I got reviews! This is exciting. :) I just want to thank everyone that left a review or added this to their story alert or favorite list! 3 Just a short chapter. I need to go see the movie again to get back in the mood. :) I apologize if any of the technical details are wrong, like I said, need to see the movie again. Updates will be slow, still getting back into the writing thing. Don't forget, reviews = love! Let me know what you think of where this is going.

Disclaimer: Disney owns everything but Jules and Jamie!

On to the story!

James was looking at the computer terminal in front of him, there was no longer a program running on the screen.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I don't think this is the same room we were in a minute ago," Jules said, looking around for a moment before taking off out of the room and up to the arcade with James following close behind.

It still looked the same, but the lighting was different somehow. Colder.

"It looks weird in here. Less dusty."

Jules gave him a strange look over her shoulder. "That's what you notice? The dust level?"

Jamie looked back at her and shrugged. "It's noticeable."

Jules shook her head and strode to the exit, only pausing momentarily to take a deep breath before pushing open the door.

What she saw took her breath away.

Outside was a city, but not the one she had grown up in. The buildings were tall, dark and beautiful without any of the reflective surfaces she was used to. The street was perfectly empty, no garbage or dirt... no pavement. She could feel James at her back, but couldn't spare him the attention to see how he was handling all this. She walked further into the street, her eyes wide as she tried to take in the details of this new world around her. It was exactly as her parents described to her, the sky dark but with a faint blue glow that seemed to illuminate everything anyways. As she walked closer to some of the buildings though she noticed that everything wasn't as perfect as she thought. There were places on the builds were the surface flickered, solid one moment then a jagged edged hole the next, showing the gridlines of the computer framework. It was like the building was degraded in spots. She took another look around, realizing that most of the buildings showed signs of damage.

"Uh, so, hate to interrupt your moment, but are we where I think we are?" James asked, worried look in his eyes.

Jules spun to look back at him, standing just outside the doorway of the arcade. "If you're thinking the Grid, then yes." Her face was practically alight with wonder.

Jamie was momentarily speechless, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to figure out what to say to that. Finally he decided on, "So... this is bad. How do we get back out?" He was not nearly so excited about the idea of being stuck in a computer.

Her face deflated slightly, "Don't you remember? We have to get to the interface."

"Yea, I remember. I also remember how hard your parents used to tell us it was. Oh God..." he was breathing hard and bent over to put his head down, his hands on his knees.

"Hey," she said, running back to him, "it'll be ok. We'll get through this. My parents had lots of stories of this place. They must come and go, it can't be that bad." '_Well_,' she thought to herself, '_technically it could be, my parents didn't get out this last time..._' But she was trying to be positive for her friends sake.

He turned his head to say something to her but was interrupted by a bright light making its way down the street, a loud humming noise accompanying it. The pair leaned to look out from under the awning. It was a ship. Jules thought it kind of reminded her of a floating Pi symbol.

"Thats a bad thing, right?" Jamie mumbled to her.

"Yep," she replied, yanking him back from view and opening the arcade door back up so they could slip inside. They stood there with their ears pressed against the door, listening for pursuit. Eventually the light moved off and they didn't hear anything else.

James turned and put his back against the wall, sliding down to the floor. "Whaaaat do we do now?" he asked around a jaw-cracking yawn."

Jules looked at him from where she was leaning against the door, frown marring her face. "I guess we sleep?" She looked up to the second floor apartment where her grandfather lived when he first owned the arcade. "Hopefully there is furniture up there. We can get a fresh start after we get some sleep."

"You think we're safe here?"

"Safer than anywhere else at this point." She shrugged. "This building doesn't seem to show any signs of degradation and no one knows we're here."

"True," James said as he got to his feet. To be safe, they carefully moved two of the game machines in front of the doors like a makeshift barricade before heading upstairs.

As she had hoped, the apartment was the same as her parents described it, with a wrap around couch, bed, bathroom and kitchenette. She didn't have any hope for the kitchenette, but the furniture looked fine to her.

"I'll take the couch."

Jules turned to look at James, then back at the couch. "Yea right, your feet will hang clear off the end. Take the bed."

As she walked over to the bed to grab a pillow and blanket for herself he sighed, knowing there was no point in arguing with her.

Jules kicked off her boots and threw her jacket over the other part of the couch and settled down for a brief nap. "Don't sleep too long!" she said with a grin, clicking her flashlight off.

Jules eyes snapped open. She could feel her eyes moving, but she couldn't see a thing for how dark it was. Something had woken her, but she wasn't sure what. She lay there listening for a moment. Eventually she hear a very faint noise, like a footstep muffled by carpet. She carefully moved the blanket back and swung her sock-clad feet to the floor. Getting up quietly she avoided the beanbag chair she had seen earlier and started for the door. She was getting close when she felt a cool, smooth edge press against her throat. She froze, her eyes wide in the dark.

"Don't move." a voice hissed quietly at her.

The edge was removed from her neck and then there was a low blaze of light and color as a disc was brought to life inches from her face. Jules flinched back from the sudden light, squinting as her eyes adjusted and she saw the person holding the disc at her neck. It was a woman with dark hair, slicked back harshly, and pale blue eyes that could only be described as icy. She didn't look to be much older than Jules, but that didn't mean much here.

She tried to take a step back only to bump into another body. She hissed in surprise, her eyes flashing to the woman with the weapon. As her eyes grew accustomed to the light she realized that there were quite a few bodies crowding the small apartment. They were all dressed in flat black.

She heard as James suddenly woke up to find himself surrounded. "What the...?" he mumbled, confused, before one of the large men tried to grab him.

"No don't!" she yelled just before he slugged one of them. The program fell back, shaking its head before tackling Jamie to the floor. Jules winced as his head smacked the ground. He was lifted to his feet and brought over to where she was standing, a slightly dazed look on his face. The dark-haired woman watched all of this without expression, her disc still at Jules neck.

Jules gave her a dark look. "What do you want with us?"

The woman's eyes flicked to Jules. "Who are you?" she asked harshly.

"Jules. Who are you?" she said, throwing some serious attitude into her voice.

The woman didn't seem to find her amusing, lowering her disc to grab Jules by the throat. James tried to protest but was restrained by the two burly programs. "Don't be foolish. What is your designation and where is your disc?" she spat the words at Jules.

"I don't have one." she spat back. She wanted nothing more than to break this woman's wrist and grab her disc, but she was severely outnumbered and she didn't want her head smashed against the floor like Jamie's.

Apparently the woman thought she was lying as she raised her disc, ready to scratch Jules off her list of problems.

"Stop!"

Jules looked towards the doorway where the voice had originated from. There was a tall hooded figure there, and whoever it was was obviously in charge because Ice Queen's arm had stopped its downward descent towards Jules face.

"What is your full name?" the figure asked, voice deep and curious.

"Flynn... Jules Flynn," she whispered, hoping she wasn't signing her own death sentence.

"User!" the woman gasped, letting go of Jules neck and stepping back. She looked almost frightened now, and she didn't look happy about that either.

Jules looked around at all the programs. They had wary looks in their eyes and had let go of Jamie. He was rubbing the places on his arms where they had grabbed him as he stepped closer to her.

"Who are you? And how did you know we were here?" Jules asked, taking a step closer to the cloaked figure.

She heard a deep sigh. "We didn't. Clu's followers don't come here, they fear this place. Its where we meet." He gestured to all the programs in the room. "But the doors were blocked. We knew someone had to be here."

Jules frowned. "Whos 'we'?"

The figure stepped closer and raised his hands to put down his hood. He had a shock of white hair, long and messy enough to cover the majority of his forehead in the front, but short in the back and bright green eyes. That wasn't what had Jules mesmerized though. It was the faintly glowing symbol just where his cheekbone met his temple.

"You're an ISO..."


End file.
